Microsoft’s New Mission Statement, Apple Rewrites History, & More… [Tech News Digest]

Satya Nadella rallies the troops, Apple dictates to developers, Microsoft Office lands on Android, Tumblr TV shows nothing but GIFs, Amazon keeps on trucking, and four hours of reactions to Final Fantasy VII Remake.




Microsoft Wants To Empower Everybody

Microsoft has a new mission statement, and it’s a rather ambitious one. The new official mission statement was revealed in company-wide email sent out to all employees.

Written by CEO Satya Nadella, it sets out the company’s goals for the next year. This “State of the Union” wasn’t meant for public consumption, but was published in full by GeekWire.

Nadella first suggests Microsoft “can do magical things when we come together with a shared mission, clear strategy, and a culture that brings out the best in us individually and collectively.” He then goes onto spell out this shared mission.

Microsoft’s new mission statement is: “Every great company has an enduring mission. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”


This is simple to understand, effective in getting the message across to all employees, and really rather ambitious while remaining vague enough that it’s virtually impossible to fail. That is unless Windows 10 absolutely blows, obviously.

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Apple Pulls American Civil War Games

Apple has pulled all games from the App Store which feature the Confederate flag. This means any and all games concerning the American Civil War have disappeared, with Apple telling affected developers this is because their game “includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”

This is in response to the racially motivated mass murder at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17th. In the aftermath of the killing and the debate that ensued, retailers banned sales of the Confederate flag. However, Apple is going one step further and trying to rewrite history.


In order to have their games reinstated to the App Store, Apple is asking developers to remove all traces of the Confederate flag. Thus ignoring the fact that, as unsavory as it may be, the Confederate flag is a part of history. We can only imagine Apple would remove Hitler from the movie Downfall if it had its way.

Office Arrives on Android Smartphones

Microsoft Office is now available for Android smartphones, with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps available to download for free. Office arrived on Android tablets earlier this year, over a year after first being launched on the Apple iPad. Office is now available on all three major mobile operating systems, on both tablets and smartphones.


The basic features of Office are all free, with the option to subscribe to Office 365 for those who need to unlock all of the functionality. Microsoft has included integration with the likes of Google Drive and DropBox. Office for Android phones is only compatible with Android 4.4 (KitKat) and later versions, and requires your handset to have at least 1GB of RAM.

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Tumblr TV Shows All GIFs, All the Time

Tumblr has unveiled Tumblr TV, a television station completely dedicated to GIFs. This isn’t a proper television station, of course, but it is set up to look like one, with a user interface that allows you to play, pause, and skip the GIFs being shown.

Tumblr TV follows hot on the heels of Tumblr’s dedicated GIF search engine, which just shows how important GIFs are to this particular platform. The aim of both is to get users finding and sharing more GIFs they love, but Tumblr TV is also a fun way of relaxing for two minutes.

Amazon’s Treasure Truck Drives to Seattle


Amazon currently has a Treasure Truck driving around Seattle, and it could soon be coming to a city near you too. The Amazon Treasure Truck contains a limited number of a certain product being offered at a huge discount on a given day. The truck acts as a moving billboard, although we’re not sure Amazon really needs to advertise its existence in its hometown.

Customers in Seattle can purchase the item on offer using Amazon’s mobile shopping app, and then meet the Treasure Truck at one of the drop-off points to collect their bounty. It’s essentially a physical version of the company’s Gold Box deal. Amazon refuses to be drawn on whether its Treasure Truck will make it to other cities in the United States, but we certainly hope it does.

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Reactions to Final Fantasy VII Remake


And finally, proof, if proof was needed, that Square Enix is doing the right thing remaking Final Fantasy VII. I must admit to being just a little excited when Square teased Final Fantasy VII Remake during Sony’s E3 2015 press conference, but I wasn’t quite as excited as these people.

This video is four hours long, and that whole four hours consists of people reacting to the news that Square is working on a remake of the beloved Final Fantasy VII. No one under a certain age will understand what this all means, but for us middle-aged types, this news was mind-blowing. [H/T Kotaku]

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

What is your opinion of Microsoft’s new mission statement? Is Apple justified in pulling games depicting the American Civil War? Are you pleased to see Microsoft Office released for Android? What was your reaction to Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credits: Bhupinder Nayyar via Flickr


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